The boots stood motionless beside the bed, Arman didn't dare breathe, muscles locked, every second that ticked by pressed like a weight on his ribs, a blade against his lungs threatening to tear him the moment he breathes, the metallic scent of fear filled his nose.
Somewhere outside, a stray dog barked, then, a short, sharp vibration, his phone, a muffled buzz from his pocket, he had forgotten to put it on silence, the sound was soft but enough, the intruder heard it, the boots moved, a pause, then a step forward, Arman curled up tighter, he was scared shitty.
A shadow fell over the edge of the mattress, then slowly, the bed above his dipped under the new weight, he clenched the flash drive in his palm, his mind was racing, could he escape through the window? Was it someone he knew? A thief? An agent?
But before anything else could happen, even before the intruder could search further, the front door opened
"Arman?"
It was his mother's voice, the mattress lifted instantly, in a flash the boots retreated, the intruder rushed through the living room, footsteps pounded away, a slam, then the back gate rattled.
Arman tumbled from under the bed and dashed after the intruder, he rushed to the back gate, outside, the streetlight cast long, shifting shadows, he caught a glimpse of a figure in a gray jacket sprinting towards an alley across the street.
His mother reached up to him worried silly, she pulled him for an embrace, tears welled up in her crystal clear eyes
"Arman, whats going on son?" she asked expecting a good answer from her son, Arman tried to form words in his mouth but to no avail, no word seemed to escape his mouth.
By the time the police arrived, the house was empty again, nothing was stolen, nothing damaged, there were no abnormalities anymore in the house but deep down Arman knew why they had come, out of all things they wanted the flash drive that belonged to his father.
He couldn't sleep that night, instead, he backed up the contents of the USB three times, in his laptop, in an external drive and a cloud server linked to a burner email, he was for real running out of safe places.
The next morning was gray, drizzly and cold, at NIT, things felt off, Arman walked through the gate like a ghost, every passerby felt like a threat to him, his eyes snanned the parking lot, the men in the black Land Cruiser weren't there to be seen but their absence din't bring comfort, it only made them feel more prepared, his paranoia had roots now.
As he walked into his 8 am "Data Security & Encryption" lecture, he noticed a man that hadn't seen before talking with Professor Gilbert Nwoko outside the door, he was one of the few lecturers who never smiled, the stranger looked up at Arman too lomg to be a coincidence, then he nodded and walked away leaving Professor Gilbert Nwoko and the puzzled Arman, Nwoko's piercing gaze landed on Arman.
"You're late"
He couldn't reason with him so he just walked passed him, entered and sat near the back, class was already filling when he walked in, soon Nwoko followed, setting his briefcase on the desk and flipping through his USB collection with the same indifference as always but Arman saw it, a small gray drive marked DG-2, the Professor reached his hand turning on the projector.
"Today's lecture, 'Government Freight Encryption and Vulnerabilities"
Nwoko said, slides popped up, words Arman had only read on the hiddden files from his father's flash drive appeared again, bold and blatant: Covert Registry, Border anomalies, his fingers trembled, either this was the World's biggest coincidence or this was just personal.
Professor Nwoko's voice cut through his spiraling thoughts
"Some systems" he said "were built not to protect data...but to bury it, to ensure the right people dissapear from the records" students chuckled
Arman didn't because he knew Professor Nwoko was not lying about it
"Of course as we all know breaches happens in different facilities, the same occurs in transport departments"
He pulled up a case study from a certain year on government hacking, which was complete with examples from 'high-risk freight data breaches', Arman froze, his heart raced.
"The Transportation Department has a set of regulations that they are to be adhered to" Professor Nwoko continued with his lectures
"Has anyone ever heard of Secure Protocals used in Government Freight Systems?" he asked a quick random question
No one inside ever heard of anything similar thus leaving them only puzzled from the question, the only person with an indifferent gaze was Arman, the words struck his chest, Freight Systems, Government Protocals
His vigilance rose to the maximum, Professor Nwoko, how related is he to the secrets of the flash drive, and that mysterious stranger, Arman remembers similar files on the encrypted documents from the drive, he stared, stunned as Nwoko brought up a diagram labeled:
*Runaway Protocal - Case Study*
Arman's fingers twitched, he couldn't take notes, he couldn't even look away, was this just part of the curriculum? Or a warning instead? he thought.
The case study marked the end of the day's lecture, Professor Nwoko lingered behind pretending to tie his shoelaces as the rest of the students filtered out, he stood alone at the board erasing the words, then just before leaving, he looked up and said,
"Your father had the same look, he asked too many questions."
To Arman, it felt like being punched straight in the face, his blood turned to ice, he turned sharply
"What did you say?"
But Nwoko had already walked, he was now 100% sure that Professor Nwoko had ties with his father, probably even with his death.
That afternoon, Arman waited, then at last made up his mind during break when he saw Professor Nwoko exiting the admin block for lunch, he took it as an opportunity to slip into his office
Professor Nwoko's office was on the third flow of the main Admin building, Admin Block C, he passed the corridor and soon entered the office
There, pinned to the wall was a photo, a younger Nwoko, flanked by men in military fatigues, on the far right, smilling faintly was David Gonzalez, his very own father
He took out his phone and snapped the photo, then he shifted his attention to the drawers opening one after the other, searching, photos, files, then a locked drawer, it didn't open, he grabbed, a pin from the notice board and jimmed it
'click'
It opened, inside was a pile of papers and atop it was a USB drive labeled DG-2, and below it, a letter addressed to David Gonzalez, written in 2002, he pocketed them both and left.
After exiting from there, he decided to head straight home, that day he didn't have any more classes, only an eSports live stream match later in the night, so he didnt have to be in NIT anymore
As he was going for the gate, a hand reached up to him, a soft delicate hand, he turned back to find a girl beaming up with a very bright smile
'This girl is truly beautiful' he thought silently
For a moment, he was captivated by her beauty, the girl was non other than Joyce, the girl who always tried to get close to him
"Joyce" he said
"Whats wrong, is there something thats troubling you?" he asked
Joyce smiled as she said "Its nothing i just wanted to have a walk with you"
She said as she tucked his hands more tighter and pulled him, walking together, they seemed more like a couple, holding hands, Joyce smiling from time to time, the men who once approached Joyce casted envious looks at the duo.
Instead of going straight home, Arman was dragged by the persistant Joyce to KFC restaurant in Magomeni, together they ate and drank, he was the silent one while Joyce was someone whose mouth never stopped talking, she talked and talked and talked, she also asked questions which Arman answered a few and some of them were left unanswered
"Arman"
"Yes"
"Are you using Instagram?" she inquired
"Yeah, is something wrong?" he answered plainly
"No, silly boy, I just want to know your handle" Arman gave her a looked at her as if to read through her thoughts
"Why asking for it?"
"Arman why are you always defensive, do i look like a threat to you, tell me what's so bad that makes you to be like that?" she didn't stop she talked while asking questions, she reached to the extent that tears welled up in her eyes threatening to rain anytime, Arman felt guilty seeing her in such state.
'I already vowed to never let a lady cry', he remembered the moment when he saw her mother cry so he wouldn't allow any other lady to cry.
He drew closer to Joyce who was on a verge of bursting to tears, he patted her back thrice, and gave her a hug which left himself puzzled, what am i doing? ugh, im going too far with this, he started pulling his hands away from her but before he could completely remove them, she grabbed his hands and wrapped them more tigher to her body, Arman's mind went blank, only one term circulated in his mind:
'Pervert, Pevert, Pervert, this girl is a pervert'
15 minutes later Joyce was sleeping on Arman's laps, the posture made him feel embarassed from the looks he was receiving from other customers, it also was from this posture where he got a clear view of Joyce's body, her skin felt so soft under his hands, her body was perfectly curved, the clothes she wore swiftly outlined the curves
"you are very beautiful, (sigh) too beautiful to be with a man like me" he thought out loud
"What if you are the man that I have loved so far" Joyce said as she sat properly
"I never said a thing" Arman defended himself
"Hehe, your shamelessness has no bounds" she mokingly said
"Its wolfking_cana" "Huh! what's that supposed to be" "Didn't you ask for my IG handle" "Oh! yeah i did, so it's wolfling_cana" "Lady, i said wolfking_cana" "Sorry"
She took out her latest model iPhone opened the Instagram app and searched the name provided
"Arman, what's this I'm seeing"
On her screen was an account with followers higher than hers and on top of it all, it only had post about games and related matters and the view counts of everything was enormous, she bit her lower lips while thinking
'Whats more important than posts of a beauty such as me, games, these are just like action figures'
She couldn't understand the minds of all these people flocking the comment section, "Whats wrong with it?" asked Arman uncaringly, "Everything is wrong, this account doesn't match you at all, are you sure this is yours huh"
"Do you want me to open my IG to prove it?"
"I.... no.... i mean yes, i need proof" she folded her hands on her chest,
Arman took out his phone, old modeled phone with a cracked screen, he open the app and gave the phone to Joyce who was surprized and curious
"Okay i believe you, but how... I mean this acccount... just how?"
"I just love games" a very simple answer with quite a good meaning, though not satisfied, she decided to resign for now because she knew no matter how she asks, she won't get the answers she need.
Joyce dragged Arman to one of the male cloth selling shop and bought him a few pairs, it was obvious that Arman objected it but Joyce insisted alot upto this moment, then off they went to another location, since it was not far from where they were, in only a few minutes they reached their destination, now it was time to get a hair cut, Joyce waited in the lobby as Chuga, a barber took Arman inside.
Less than an hour later Arman came out looking alot more handsome than before, they also changed his clothes, so he changed to a breathtaking handsome guy, Joyce stopped breathing for a sec
"Damn you just stole my breath" Joyce exclaimed
"Do you want me to pin you on the bed, to steal your breath even more?" Arman spoke up while walking leisurely with his lips slightly curved upwards seductively.
"Y..you....ugh....I didn't know that you were such a pervert" her cheeks were already flushed red.
"Oh"
"..."
" shall we go then, no more places i just need to go back home"
"(she cleared her throat) yes no more places, but im taking you home."
"Hmm!! what's your motive, woman" he asked suspiciously, "Hehe, i wanna know where my future boyfriend is staying" Arman contemplated whether to accept or not.
'What harm will it bring' he thought.
"Future boyfriend you say, Okay then" he accepted
It was already late in the evening when Arman's mother returned home, she cleaned up the house and did other house chores, then outside she saw a car slowly parking right in front of her house, she paused.
'Where is Arman? its already night and hasn't returned yet' she thought, then went out to see who came, the driver switched of the lights and Arman exited first, she looked at the seemingly different Arman he is seeing, he was wearing different clothes from the ones he wore in the morning, his hair style looked different too.
"Oh thanks God, i was just thinking about you my son" she pulled his son close for an embrance, "Were you so worried, my caring mom" " of course i wa....." before she finished speaking, the backddoor opened again, but this time, was on the opposite side of the car, she looked in disbelief at the beautiful lady infront of her, her gaze shifted from both of them several times,.
"Arman"
"Yes mama"
"Why didn't you tell me that you'd come with a guest?"
"Well now you know mah, by the way this is Joyce and Joyce, this is my mama" he shortly intoduced both of them, "Lets not just stand outside, come along my dear, you are staying over for dinner" she dragged Joyce by her hand leaving her son behind
"Huh! am I not your son? why leaving me behind and dragging a stranger inside?" "It rained in the morning, there should be some mud in the backyard, go play with it" "I demand a DNA test"
The three of them joined together at the table for a meal, food was prepared by Arman's mother assisted by Joyce, "Im so happy that you brought your girlfriend over" Arman spat the juice he was drinking meanwhile Joyce only giggled while covering her face with a sexy smile
"Mama, did i even say that she is my girlfriend"
"Tell me dear, is he not your boyfriend" "He definetely is my boyfriend"
"I might be your boyfriend but ghurl you're not my girlfriend"
"What's that even supposed to mean"
"Ugh! Joyce, its already late finish your food and go home" the atmosphere livened up with Arman being teased by his mother and Joyce, the latter enjoyed that kind of feeling, deep down she really wanted to be part of his life.
After meal, Joyce stayed over for a few minutes while waiting for her transport to arrive, they laughed and talked and when it arrived, they bid farewell "You should visit more often" "I will mama, now that i know the place i will come visit you" "Okay, be a good girl" " I will always be mama"
After hearing that, Arman's mama turned around left in the direction of the kitchen, then Joyce turned towards Arman "Won't you be a good boyfriend and give me a goodbye kiss" she smiled,
Arman rolled his eyes, 'let me show her how shameless I am' he thought.
He drew nearer to her
Pulled her close
Held her waist by both hands
Then gave her a hug,
But his notoriety didn't just end there, during the hug, his hands slid to that fine ass and spanked it, he then released her from the hug and did more naughty things
"Anh!!" a soft moan escaped Joyce's mouth as Arman pinched both of her boobs, one of his hand held her by the neck, tilting her head upwards, he leaned downwards, by using his lips he parted her moist lips and gave her a passionate kiss which lasted for five full seconds.
Joyce's mind was racing at the moment, she stood rooted not believing what just happened, her whole body was tingling with amazing sensations, her chest heaved up and down strongly, her cheeks were flushed red, she was blushing hard, non stop
"Thank you, i really needed that" she smiled, now not daring to make eye contact, she was acting shy omg, Arman had a victorious smile, a smile of a hero who accomplished a great mission for his country
"We still are not dating" he proclaimed
"I can be too persuasive, so for as far as i've reached today is surely a great achievement" she said, turning back, heading outside, Arman walked her outside, he came back inside only after the car made a corner.
He gave a long sigh and went inside, he bid her mother goodnight then went straight to his room.
The time that he had anticipated the whole day has finally came, he locked the door, shut the window then took out the USB labelled DG-2, he took a moment to look at it and switched on his laptop
His face lit up from the light of his laptop
"Its about time...."